


Casual

by zarabithia



Category: Avenger (Comic), Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel 616, The Avengers (2012), Young Avengers
Genre: Everyone is Bisexual, F/M, Multi, Threesome, Threesome - F/F/M, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-18 10:36:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/560091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Kate and Clint invited someone to join them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Noh-Varr

Kate didn't plan on having sex with him again. Sure, the sex was pretty great, and his mouth and hands did all the right things, but Kate had planned on chalking him up to being a fond memory of her first one-night stand. The kind of thing she would have giggled over with Cassie, if she was still here, or laughed over with her sorority sisters, if Kate had anything approaching a normal life.

Besides, there was the whole ... not-really-a-relationship-yet-but-maybe-heading-there _thing_ that Kate was having with the guy who apparently hadn't had any problem sleeping with her, after all. The whole thing with Clint was still entirely in its awkward stages (and her not-really-relationships with Tommy and Eli had made Kate _intimately_ aware of the many ways that relationships could go awkward) but it was ... nice. In fact, it was _also_ the kind of thing that Kate might have giggled over with Cassie, if she hadn't given her life in battle, or laughed over with her sorority sisters, if Kate's idea of a good Friday night wasn't putting a few arrows through the right body parts. 

As it was, Kate was still trying to decide if it was too early to bring up the idea of Clint to Susan, when the whole prospect of including Noh-Varr came up.

"The thing about none of your teammates knowing about us, Katie, is that they have very big mouths," Clint revealed to her as he stripped off his shirt. As difficult as it was to pay any attention to what was coming out of his mouth when those abs were available, Kate persevered, with great difficulty. 

Leaning back into the bed, Kate covertly enjoyed the view while she stated, "Yeah, I think you changed the diapers of the only teammate I had who was remotely capable of keeping a secret." 

Clint blinked at her in confusion for a moment before scowling. "No, I never changed Cassie's diaper. I'm not that old! Scott's that old. I am _much_ younger than Scott."

"Nah." 

Clint grumbled too low for her to understand for a moment - god, he was ridiculously attractive when he did that, and every one of Kate's hormones wanted to abandon this whole "conversation" thing and skip straight to jumping his bones. 

"I would just like to remind you that you're sleeping with me, regardless of how old I am," Clint reminded her as he shrugged off his pants irritably. 

Irritable Clint did the best trick with his tongue, really. 

"Hey, I know that you're like 90 years old. Some of us have good kinks, but some of us have _great_ kinks. Namely, me with my old man fetish. Anyway, what was your point about my teammates being big gossipers before we got distracted by the fact that you're one stressful battle away from needing some Just For Men?"

Kate really could be good and focus on Clint's ongoing need to have discussions. Even if her mind wanted to move on to the removal of those ridiculous purple boxers. 

Clint rolled his eyes, but wisely decided to continue, which was a sign that Kate took as proof of the fact that he'd been thinking on whatever he wanted to talk about for a while. They'd only teamed up with Kate's team for three days, but the fact that Clint was pursuing the line of thought despite distractions meant that he'd been thinking about it for the majority of that time. 

"They may have let it slip that you and Noh-Varr had a thing," Clint revealed as he sat down, cross-legged, on the bed beside her.

"No. We had sex. It was not a thing," Kate corrected. "And you're not allowed to get jealous about this. We had sex back when you were still in the middle of your Cherry-Jessica-Bobbi-Natasha clusterfuck." 

"I wasn't getting jealous. I was just remembering what you said during the Cherry-Jessica-Bobbi-Natasha clusterfuck." 

"That you were being an idiot?" 

"Besides that," Clint said, and at her blank look, he clarified, "about how I could probably score a threesome out of it, if I had more sense." 

"Are you trying to score a threesome with Noh-Varr?" Kate asked, and at the bashful - who knew that was a feeling Clint Barton could even possess? - look that accompanied his shrug, Kate was reminded at his utter horror, two years ago, when she'd suggested the threesome.

Sometimes, people really did grow up. 

"I'm trying to figure out if that's something you'd like. Something you'd be okay with," Clint answered finally. 

That was sweet, Kate thought. It was sweet enough that Kate took pity on him, leaning over to kiss his cheek. "I'll see how he feels about it," she promised, and Clint looked immediately relieved.

Pushing him back onto the bed caused an entirely different look to come over his face, one that was replicated again, two weeks later, when Kate successfully brought Noh-Varr with her for "dinner."

Clint's cooking was still atrocious, and Noh-Varr agreed with her on that, earning him the momentary honor of being her favorite teammate.

But although nobody had any complaints about the dessert portion of their night, the title of "favorite teammate" alternated frequently between Kate's boys.

~~


	2. Bucky Barnes

Clint tended to have very different relationships with the women he wanted to sleep with and the men he wanted to sleep with, Kate noticed. 

Maybe she should have noticed that fact when Clint had spent their three day team-up bickering with Noh-Varr before bringing up the idea of a threesome with him. But in Kate's defense, Noh-Varr had a tendency to bring the arrogance like nobody else, so Kate had initially figured that their bickery was just a consequence of two men whose egos didn't quite fit in the same room. 

There was also the fact that Clint had spent much of that team-up arguing with Tommy too, and Kate wasn't entirely sure what to make of that fact, yet.

But she was in the middle of trying to give Lucky a bath, while pretending to listen to Clint complain about Bucky Barnes, when it occurred to her that the spiel sounded very familiar. 

"I liked him better when he pretended to be dead," Clint was yelling above a clang of pots in the kitchen. "Wasn't around so much to be such a fucking nuisance. I mean, just because Cap took pity on some scrawny kid 100 years ago doesn't mean the rest of us have to give a flying fuck about his ongoing Bucky weakness."

Lucky gave a full body shake in the tub, which was a pretty fair assessment of the half hour rant that Clint had been doing. 

It should really not take someone that long to cook spaghetti. Even someone with Clint's terrible culinary skills. 

"You give enough of a flying fuck to keep ranting about it," Kate observed.

"You asked me about my day! I am telling you about my shitty teammates. That counts as about my day!" 

Lucky tilted his head sympathetically. At least, Kate was sure it was sympathy. That dog was getting all the best dog food for at least a month – which Clint would no doubt ruin by giving him pizza instead. 

She gave him a good scratch behind the ear as she answered Clint. "Have you even managed to boil the water yet?" 

"I can cook spaghetti!" Clint yelled from the kitchen. "It's not actually hard." 

"It better not be. Because I had a long day too, and if you end up putting Ragu in my pasta, you are going to end up wearing that terrible excuse for a sauce." 

"I got you the damn Prego, Princess."

"Good. You can buy the same when you finally pull your head out of your ass and invite Bucky to dinner." 

There was - in Kate's view - a hilarious crash from the kitchen, and then a long pause before Clint showed up in the bathroom's doorway. Kate continued to rinse Lucky, patiently waiting for Clint to ask his question.

She didn't have to wait long.

"Why are we inviting Barnes to dinner?" Clint demanded.

"Because he's hot, and he gets both of us bothered?" Kate offered. 

"Since when is Barnes hot?" 

"For me? Since I bugged his bike a few years ago, when he was first into the whole deep, broody, leather jacket thing. For you? I dunno, but at least since this conversation began, I'm pretty sure." 

The indignant noise that Clint made really would have sounded more appropriate coming from Lucky. Kate took a towel and motioned for Lucky to climb out of the tub.

"I'm just saying it worked well with Noh-Varr," Kate reminded him.

"Barnes does _not_ get me _bothered_ ," Clint scoffed. "And he was before born women's lib even happened, so who knows what kind of backwards ass ideas he has about sex. He'd be a lousy partner for you, Katie-Kate." 

"He dated Natasha Romanova. I'm sure she trained him as well as she trained you," Kate said, giving Lucky a good, thorough drying with the towel. 

Clint grumbled indignantly all the way back to the kitchen.

Two weeks later, Clint brought Bucky home for "dinner." True, the "dinner" was at 2 a.m., and all three of the parties involved were vaguely exhausted. 

But they were hungry, too. 

So they sat at the kitchen table, around warmed up pizza that was shared with Lucky, and Bucky asked as casually as Kate was sure he was capable of, "So... Clint tells me the two of you have an .... arrangement of sorts." 

"We invite people for threesomes, yes," Kate told him. "Sometimes."

Twice totally counted as "sometimes." 

"Careful, girly-girl. You'll scandalize him," Clint cautioned, tossing another piece of pizza to Lucky. 

"Well, it's not quite as intriguing as the orgies that the Invaders used to have, but I don't think I'm going to be _scandalized_ by it," Bucky scoffed. 

"Okay, there's no way that Captain Flagpole ever took part in any orgies," Clint argued, and at that point, Kate would have liked to have continued to listen, but the idea of an Invaders orgy was not something that was conducive to logical thought.

By the time she rejoined the conversation, most of the pizza was gone. "If you're done day-dreaming about Invaders orgies, we can get to the sex part," Clint told her. 

"You should feel free to keep telling dirty stories, though," Kate informed Bucky. "Clint's mouth is going to be occupied, but yours might be free." 

"I do have a pretty perfect mouth," Clint said, insufferably pleased with himself, and Kate didn't disagree. 

"I look forward to deciding that for myself," Bucky answered, and Kate did have to disagree then.

"Oh, no. Lady's choice means that the mouth is all mine. You'll have to settle for the ass, which is also pretty fabulous, just not as fabulous as his mouth," Kate informed him.

"It wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me to disagree," Bucky said, and Kate liked him for that answer alone.

Later, when the coolness of his metal hand brushed across her breast and contrasted _just so_ with the warmth of Clint's tongue, Kate liked him even more.


	3. MCU Clint

Oh, battles always started well. The same rush of excitement, need to be helpful, and the certainty that the bad guys were going have their collective asses handed to them was an old familiar friend to Kate by now - and to Clint, too, she was sure. 

Not all battles ended well, though. Kate had learned that lesson a long time ago, but when she said "it doesn't end well," she generally meant, "someone will get hurt," not "someone will wind up in an alternate universe." 

Yet, one crappy battle later, she and Clint were thrown in a heap directly in front of a very startled group of Avengers, who only vaguely resembled the ones back home. 

A week later, this universe's versions of Bruce Banner and Tony Stark were _still_ trying to work on a way to get them home (neither seemed to know Reed Richards yet, to both Clint and Kate's dismay), while Clint and Kate took refuge in the guest room they'd been given in Stark Tower. 

"Man, I hope somebody remembers to feed the dog," Clint said, glaring a little at the target he was throwing darts at. 

Kate rolled her eyes. "That's what you're worried about? I made Tommy promise to feed Lucky if we were ever indisposed." 

Clint was surprised enough by that comment that his dart _almost_ missed its mark. But since he was Hawkeye, it didn't. He did turn a startled glance to Kate's seat by the window. "So ... we're telling people about us, now? I mean, were, before we ended up here?" 

"People _besides_ Noh-Varr and Bucky Barnes?" Kate said pointedly.

"Well, they don't count, Katie. What, are they going to blab that they were part of a Hawkeye sandwich?" 

"Who wouldn't blab that? Who _wouldn't_ want to be part of a Hawkeye sandwich?" 

Clint considered that, before throwing another dart. "That's a good point, really. But still. You know what I meant." 

"It's just Tommy."

"It's just _Pietro's nephew._ "

"Wanda Maximoff's _son_ ," Kate argued, and she would have argued about his other set of parents, too, but considering that they'd been cool with him being taken away from them and never coming back before any of Kate's team had been much older than 16, arguing that they were positive influences seemed a bit silly. 

"Thank you for reminding me that the woman I'm dating is on the same team as the son of a woman that I used to - "

"Have a thing with? I thought that was a Doombot?" 

Clint gave her the best impression of a glare that he could, before he stretched lazily on the sofa, a peekaboo shot of his abs saying hello before he relaxed. "The view any more interesting out that window, Katie-Kate? Anything we can go shoot?"

"No," Kate said, before adding, "Clint, this universe is _weird._ "

"Girly girl, don't be so judgmental. You're supposed to be embracing this as your first time in an alternate universe." 

"This is _not_ my first time in an alternate universe."

"Okay, then you should be thinking about all the ways it could be much, much worse." 

"I wasn't _complaining_ , Clint. I was just saying. This universe is odd." 

"You only think it's odd because alternate me doesn't have an alternate you tagging along with alternate me." 

"Tagging along?" Kate gave a much better glare than Clint did. "Shame for him. Who will save his ass from angry tracksuit-wearing bros?" 

"Shame for her," Clint countered. "Who is going to do that thing with the tongue for her?" 

"Maybe the same person who taught it to you," Kate retorted.

"Natasha?" Clint asked, and Kate just stared at him. He shrugged awkwardly. "Okay, that wasn't really ... how mad are you for that?" 

"For what? Reminding me that you had a sex life before I met you? So did this Hawkeye," Kate said, getting up from her spot by the window to walk over and straddle Clint's lap. 

"Yeah, but I don't want to hear about yours, so you probably don't want to hear about mine. You were quiet, and you're never quiet. Even when you're mad."

"You want to hear about mine when it leads to Hawkeye sandwiches," Kate reminded him. 

Clint grinned at her. "You want to include Natasha in a Hawkeye sandwich?"

"Maybe. If we ever find a universe where she is single," Kate said with a shrug. "She's attractive and scarily competent. In case you haven't noticed, that's kind of my type, Hawkeye." 

"Mm." Clint let his hands rest lazily on her hips, and Kate could almost see him contemplating other options. "Seems a shame to go home and not have tapped someone in this universe, Hawkeye." 

"Do you have a threesome in every alternate universe, or just ones where you tag along with me?" Kate asked. 

"Haven't done it yet. It's totally on the bucket list, though," Clint told her, and she would have made a joke about old men having bucket lists, but the lines around his eyes crinkled just so, and Kate was distracted enough to lean down to kiss him. 

"So who are we inviting?" Clint asked, when they came up for air. "Pepper, Natasha, Tony, and Steve seem to be all various degrees of taken." 

"Yeah, so does Banner." 

"Oh, really?" Clint said. "I hadn't noticed that." 

"For someone who has sandwiches a lot, you seem to be missing when other people are having them." 

"Okay, so no Banner, either," Clint agreed. "If this universe is anything like the one back home, Thor's probably got a thing with Doctor Foster or Sif, or both, so he's out." 

"That is a shame," Kate said. 

"It _really_ is," Clint agreed. 

"So who does that leave? Alternate you?" 

Clint's fingers tap against her hips lightly. "That would certainly be a complete Hawkeye sandwich." 

"That doesn't sound like a no." 

"It's not," Clint agreed. "He's got a pretty nice ass."

"He's got the standard issue fabulous Clint Barton abs, too," Kate informed him. She left off the part about this universe's Clint having the same need for silly pet names that were sweeter than they really should be. Because _her_ Clint was not going to get in the habit of calling her "nestling," no matter how sweet it sounded on the other Clint's lips. 

"Think we can lure him out of his nest?" Clint asked, and Kate appreciated the fact that he was not arguing about the abs thing. 

"Archery competition," Kate said breezily. "Whoever wins gets to be in the middle part of the sandwich." 

"Mmm, aiming for a win, Katie?" 

"No." Kate rocked lightly on his lap and grinned down at him. "I want see what Natasha's had time to teach his tongue, while you fuck him." 

"I'd be horrified that you want me to _lose_ , but the more _pressing_ concern is the fact that if you keep talking that way, I'm not going to be able to walk through this Tower to have this competition." 

Kate solved that by standing up. "Let's go, Hawkeye." 

They did, and they found the other Clint already in the training room. Kate pulled him close and whispered their offer into his ear, quietly enough that she was mostly sure that Thor and Cap couldn't hear her. 

"I can live with those terms, nestling," this universe's Clint answered, and the completely obnoxious way that he licked his lips made Kate desperately hope that he was going to win. 

Three hours later, they called it a draw and returned to Clint and Kate's room. 

Not all battles ended well, but Kate was definitely chalking that particular archery competition up to a win. It didn't look - or feel - like the other two portions of the Hawkeye sandwich were going to be offering disagreement on that point. 

It also didn't look like Natasha Romanova was slacking off in the teaching department in this universe, either. In Kate's view, that made up for absolutely every bit of weirdness this universe had to offer.


	4. Bobbi Morse

The thing that nobody ever seemed to remember was that when Kate had made her debut as a hero, not only had she stolen bits of Clint's costume, but she'd also stolen Mockingbird's mask. 

Nobody ever remembered that because they were too busy making snide commentary about how she couldn't wait to get into Hawkeye's pants. Or, if they weren't quite up to date on the situation between Kate and Clint, because they were too busy calling her a sidekick.

But the point was that _Kate_ remembered that mask. She remembered it just as much as she remembered everything else about the fateful day that she'd had to bail her guys out of a bind (it was true what they said: the more things changed, the more they really did stay the same.) 

She remembered because as a powerless teenage girl learning how to fight, when it came to heroes she wanted to aspire to, there was nobody as great as Mockingbird. 

So when the chance to spar with Mockingbird came up, Kate certainly didn't turn her down. And by "certainly didn't turn her down," Kate mostly meant that she jumped at the chance. 

"Call me Bobbi. Mockingbird's awfully formal for someone whose ass I'm about to kick," Bobbi greeted Kate. 

As far as greetings go, Kate wasn't sure that she'd ever had better. 

As far as trainings went, it was everything that Kate had ever wanted. All the times she had complained to Captain America that they needed training, this was the asskicking she had been craving. 

The asskicking in question left her sweaty and breathless and trapped between Bobbi's thighs and her staff. So, correction: it was far _better_ than anything Kate had ever craved. 

"Your blocking's good," Bobbi said. 

"Your punching is pretty good," Kate retorted.

"You're an even better flatterer than the Hawkeye I'm used to," Bobbi complimented. "He must be teaching you pretty well." 

"No, the snark is all mine," Kate assured her. "If it was coming from him, it would be more dorktastic and probably a bit more inappropriate. Something like, 'hey, normally when people straddle me for this long, I insist on taking them to dinner first.'"

Bobbi chuckled and leaned a little closer, with her staff pressed to Kate's throat. "That does sound like a Hawkeye retort. But I've heard some rumors that you're already taking someone else to dinner these days. I would hope Clint's recent inability to be faithful _isn't_ a shared Hawkeye trait." 

Lord, no wonder Clint had married her. Kate would never tease him about his love life ever again.

On second thought, no, she probably would. She'd just make sure that everyone knew that she wasn't talking about Bobbi. 

"It isn't being unfaithful if we both agree to include others in our relationship," Kate answered simply. 

"Hm." It felt like Bobbi shifted, but Kate couldn't actually see her do it. That was a neat trick. "Then that rumor is true, too?" 

"There are rumors about me having consensual, enjoyable and seedy threesomes with my partner?" Kate asked. "Because wow, one of three people are getting punched for kissing and telling." 

One of two, Kate mentally amended. The alternate Clint could hardly have kissed and told. They'd left him back in his world, safe and sound, six months ago. 

Bucky probably wouldn't have kissed and told, either.

So Noh-varr, definitely getting punched.

"You might want to hold up on the punching. Until we work on that skill set a bit," Bobbi told her. 

"Not sure I have the patience for that. Not sure he deserves me to have the patience for it." 

"In that case, maybe you should stick to the arrows," Bobbi suggested as she eased herself off Kate in a movement that was much, much quicker than Kate could have done. 

"I haven't had any complaints in that department," Kate agreed, getting up off the mat with much less grace than Bobbi had (but more than Clint would, Kate decided, and considering that she wasn't the Hawkeye who occasionally pretended to be a ninja, that was pretty great.) 

Bobbi reached for a towel to wipe off the sweat that Kate was incredibly proud of causing. It was then that Kate realized that a sweaty Bobbi was something that she really wanted to replicate, and quite possibly without the punching. 

"So Clint's not complaining?" Bobbi remarked idly as she tossed another towel to Kate. "I'm not sure I recognize that creature. Maybe we should check to see if he's been taken over by a Skrull." 

Kate understood entirely too much of Clint's baggage to miss the undercurrent of implied meaning behind the Skrull comment. But that was _Clint's_ baggage, so Kate carefully took a calculated step away from that comment. 

"He complains. But you know, we have a dog, so he knows who to do the complaining to." 

Wow. _We._ Kate didn't have time to wonder if she should correct that - _Clint_ had a dog and this wasn't enough of a thing to be "we" yet, right? - before Bobbi's laughter interrupted her. 

"That's good, sport. You keep that up and don't give him so much as an inch of room to forget it," Bobbi told her. 

"Plan on it." Kate put down her towel and readjusted her ponytail, wondering if she should grab a shower at home or at Avengers Mansion. "Mostly, I'm just glad that you aren't giving me the speech about 'if you're feeling pressured in any way to engage in a relationship with your mentor ...' because wow, that sucked the last three times an Avenger gave it." 

"Yes, I think you made that clear to Carol," Bobbi remarked. "And even if you hadn't, I know Clint better than that. He might pull a lot of bullshit, but he'd sooner cut off his own arm than pressure you into anything." 

"Also, I would stab him in his sleep." 

"I believe it." Bobbi leaned against a bar that was probably for Natasha or Shang-Chi or some other ridiculously flexible person. "Of course, there is the rumor that your 'consensual, enjoyable and seedy threesomes' only include other men. Currently, popular opinion has Clint secretly in the closet and using them as a way to express his sexuality." 

"Wow, it's like bisexuality doesn't exist or something." 

Bobbi laughed, and Kate figured she was really going to have to examine her blond fetish. Cassie, Clint, Bobbi - did Tommy count? Of course, that left out Eli and Bucky. Maybe her blond fetish took a hike when it came to Captain Americas. 

"For the record," Kate continued, "We haven't found a woman we'd both agree on who isn't going to treat me like a child. If we did, we'd happily get right on exploring my bisexuality, too." 

"Hm. Well, Clint does have my number." 

"Did you just invite yourself to be part of our awesome consensual, enjoyable and seedy threesomes?" Kate asked.

"Didn't Clint tell you? I always take the first step with Hawkeyes," Bobbi told her. 

"Leaving the first step up to Clint is always a bad idea," Kate agreed easily. "And I am certainly okay with this plan. You sure you'd be okay with seeing your ex naked? Those are some pretty great abs, but - " Kate shrugged, in what she hoped was the universal sign for "ex husbands are weird so fill in the gaps in this sentence for me." 

"I have no interest in going down that path with Clint long term. But I gather that your dinners are particularly pleasant one night stands and not the kind of arrangement that Steve, Sam, and Sharon have." 

"Yeah. Hey, I need to check with Clint real fast, okay? I don't know why he'd say no, but checking before we bring home dinner guests is how we roll." 

Bobbi's lips turned into something between a smirk and a grin, and goddamn, Clint had better not tell her no. "Sure, sport. Do what you need to." 

Kate pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Clint. 

_should have come to tower today, hawkeye._

_somebody won't quit bitching about me getting lucky fixed, hawkeye._

_hush it. you love when i tell you what to do. btw, bobbi for dinner, yes/no?_

_dinner or 'dinner'?_

_'dinner.' bedroom, not kitchen. should probably have food, tho. something with carbs._

_is this a test?_

_wth?_

_y'know. the kind where you test whether i'm still in love with my ex._

_clint. i want to have sex with bobbi. i want to see if that sweat looks as good when the clothes come off as it does right now. i want to see how messy i can get that pony tail before she grows tired of it and rips the scrunchy out. i want to do a lot of other things with my hands that do not involve punching them out on a touch screen. you get to be there, because i want you there. also i trust you._

_spaghetti okay?_

_no ragu._

Kate turned to Bobbi and grinned. "How's tonight work for you?" 

"Sounds good to me, Hawkeye." 

-


	5. Someone Unexpected

The first four had kind of fallen into their laps. 

Kate supposed it was only natural that it was going to take them longer to find a fifth person who wanted to sleep with both of them.

The "both" thing kind of got in the way.

~*~

"Do you know that when I was _married_ , my _wife_ never insisted on picking out my clothes?" Clint grumped as Kate vetoed yet another suit.

"Mmmhmm, and we've seen the clothing choices that you had when you were married to Bobbi," Kate answered. "And the choices you wear now. Yet you're surprised I'm here?"

"Hey! What's wrong with what I wear now?" 

"Plaid, Clint. _Plaid._ You are _not_ meeting my sister dressed in plaid."

Kate took great delight in watching the sales associate bring them yet another suit. Joshua, according to the name tag. Joshua was two inches taller than Clint, had skin that was about as pale as the scarf of Kate's old costume, and had a head full of curly red hair. Some of it peaked out from underneath his dress shirt sleeves, too. 

Kate wanted desperately to run her fingers through that hair - and to _pull._

Considering the way he was looking at Clint's ass every time he tried on a suit, Kate was beginning to think she might have a chance to do so. 

"So, I'm beginning to think about _dinner_ ," Kate said, as Joshua left them for a moment and Clint went back into the dressing room to change. 

"Dinner as in I'm fucking starving because of this shopping trip or dinner as in you want to devour the sales associate?" 

"The latter. You notice? You approve?" 

"Have I ever disapproved of your excellent taste?" 

"You keep saying no to Tommy." 

"I'm not fucking _Pietro's nephew._ "

Clint came out of the room then, and right on cue, Joshua showed back up to get another look at Clint's ass in those tight fitting pants. 

Kate thought he blushed really prettily. "So, Joshua," she said. "My boyfriend and I were thinking you could come have dinner with us." 

Joshua looked at her, then looked at Clint. "Dinner?" 

Clint nodded. "Usually we have _sandwiches._ "

Joshua looked like he had swallowed a bug. Oops, maybe she had judged this one all wrong. 

Kate sighed. "That was not even remotely subtle. Accurate, yes, but not subtle." 

"That's a nice offer, ma'am," Joshua said, tearing his eyes away from Clint's ass with great difficulty. "But I'm. Uh. You're very attractive, I'm sure, ma'am, but you're really not my type." 

Yeah, she'd judged that all wrong.

Clint did not stop laughing about it for _two weeks._

~*~

"Negotiation," Kate explained to America, who so far had been far more interested in arguing with Kate (in a way that felt increasingly familiar for reasons that Kate couldn't quite place) than in having actual conversations with her. "That's how Clint and I make it work." 

But in the spirit of teamwork, Kate was trying to pull in her temper and trying to pretend that this version of her team was as close as the old version had been.

She missed Eli, Cassie, and Jonas _so much_ though.

"No wonder I mock your leader decisions all the time," America said, watching Loki, Billy, and Teddy playing cards out of the corner of her eye.

Clint was never going to stop being confused about Loki being on her team, it was true. 

"Because I have a lot of awesome sex?" Kate said, a little more peevishly than she intended to. 

America didn't rise to the bait, though. She did take the time to roll her eyes before answering, "No, princess. Because your idea of 'negotiation' is nothing at all like mine. But hey, I'll give you credit where it's due. Being a bisexual poly chick makes you far less run of the mill spoiled brat than I thought you were." 

"This whole friendship thing we're trying, you kind of suck at it." 

"Sorry I'm not wanting to jump into bed with you and Barton," America retorted, but then she leaned over and squeezed Kate's knee and smiled. "Now, if you ever end up single and looking for a little action, you can ask again." 

"... I was _not_ hitting on you! Or inviting you to dinner!" Kate protested. Okay, so now it sounded like a good idea, but it hadn't been her _intention._

America just laughed. "Sure you weren't." 

"You really, really suck at this friendship thing." 

"Sorry, princess." America looked _completely_ without remorse, in Kate's opinion. "But I tell you what, in a gesture of friendship, you and me, we'll go to Pride together." 

"In costume?" Kate asked, because actually that sounds like a thing that should happen. 

"Of course. A Hawkeye and a Miss America at a Pride event? It will piss off all the right people." 

It was then that Kate was pretty sure that she was wrong about the friendship thing. America was doing it pretty right, after all. 

_MA just propositioned me._

_Dinner?_

_MA doesn't want you, tho._

_your grammar is terrible when you hang out with your team._

_don't be sad that the hot female captain america wants to fuck me and not u._

~*~

"So before I meet her and your brother-in-law, let me clarify something. Your sister doesn't know you're an superhero?" Clint asked. "Hold still."

"I don't need to hold still. You've wrapped that arm sixteen times."

"I'm going to wrap it sixteen more times. Katie, this needs stitches."

"It's not getting stitches." Kate sighed at Clint's scowl. "Stop that. I'm more stubborn than you. You won't win this argument." 

"All those times Cap thought I was the worst. I need to go back in time just so I can mock him appropriately." 

"Please, Steve Rogers loves me to the bottom of my rotten core," Kate scoffed. "Too bad he's got his own committed three way going. We could invite him. You know he has a _thing_ for sidekicks." 

'That's what Rick Jones says." 

"Ew," Kate informed him. "And no, my sister doesn't know." 

"Why not?" 

"Because she blames my mom's death on her desire to help people." Kate shrugged and carefully wriggled her fingers. Ouch. That was going to hurt for a while. "She worried a lot after the Central Park _thing._ She doesn't need more worry." 

"Is that why we aren't going to the hospital? To keep people from worrying?" Clint asked, because apparently he was in a mood to prove that he was more stubborn than her. "Because it's nice of you to worry about your sister, but Katie, if your fucking arm falls off I'm going to worry a lot more than if you had gone to the hospital in the first place." 

~*~

It wasn't often that Kate lost an argument. But when she woke up the next day with something that seemed suspiciously like numbness in her right arm ... well, even she had to listen to that warning sign.

So Clint won that argument.

Purely because of the blood loss.

But it wasn't entirely terrible, because two rather great things happened, in Kate's opinion. One, the hospital personnel allowed Clint in because they assumed he was _her dad._

Clint's neighborhood, apparently not giving much of a damn about Derek Bishop's career or his daughters. 

Kate was still laughing about that when the nice nurse came to start an IV. "Just in case," she said to Kate, and though she had exceptionally great bedside manner and talked directly to Kate as she put the IV in, there was no mistaking the once over that she gave Clint.

The one she gave him at least three times.

"The call button is here," Veronica told her, pointing to the side of the bed. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to use it, okay?" 

"Sure thing," Kate said groggily. "Can I use it to request some more pain medicine? I think the feeling is coming back to my arm, and wow, I really would have preferred that it didn't." 

"I'll check with the doctor. He'll probably want to wait until the x-rays come back to do much of anything. But if you need anything else, feel free to call us," Veronica said. Then she looked over at Clint and smiled the way that Eli used to smile at Kate, before he moved to _Arizona._ "Or you can have your dad come find me." 

Clint was not smiling, and Kate wanted _not_ to, because it hurt to laugh this much, but oh, she couldn't help it. 

"Don't break something _else_ , girly girl," Clint grumbled. 

"It's sweet of you to worry, _Daddy_ ," Kate purred. 

"Wow, you may have ruined that kink forever, Katie." 

"We'll have to find another. I _do_ have a school girl uniform," Kate said flippantly. Taking pity on the confused - and vaguely horrified - nurse, Kate clarified, "I'm 20. He's 33. And you should know that people are only allowed to flirt with my boyfriend if you're planning on flirting with me, too. That's how we work." 

Kate could go for that. Veronica had short black hair that would have made Snow White jealous, warm brown eyes, and skin that was a shade lighter than her eyes. 

"I apologize for the assumption," Veronica said to Kate, "But I don't flirt with my patients." 

The worst part was that the asshole doctor wouldn't even approve the pain medication. 

~*~

_aren't you supposed to be taking it easy while your arm heals?_

_and let MA stage a hostile takeover of my leadership position? nah_

_would she do that to someone she wants to fuck?_

_clearly u never met her._

_she doesn't want to fuck me, remember? neither does nat btw_

_aw. u invited her?_

_yup. said yes to you. no to me. bucky must have turned her off men forever._

_those hands would never do that. there's always tommy._

_i'm not fucking pietro's nephew._

_there's always pietro._

_really?_

_no._

~*~

"So you're an Avenger, right?" Susan said. "That sounds ... unnecessarily dangerous." 

Kate sat next to Clint at Susan and Mark's dining table, watching the maid bring the plates to the table - Karen, Kate thought her name was. Susan had mentioned her in a phone call last week, because she was a new addition while Jennifer went on maternity leave. But Kate had just fought a horde of dimension traveling pirates and she hadn't exactly been paying attention to the details of the conversation.

She should have been paying attention. She didn't ever want to be the kind of Bishop who didn't know the servants' names. 

"Well, it is. But you know, Thor and Iron Man are around to keep me out of too much trouble," Clint answered with a shrug. 

Kate thought of the row of scars leading from his knee to his hip, gained when he stopped the tracksuit draculas from injuring Simone and George two weeks ago. She thought of the six inch long jagged scar down the middle of his chest he'd gained from a lucky bank robber who'd managed to get his hands on an armor-piercing knife. She thought of how he had gotten choked up about the way that _a dog_ had suffered when he'd saved Clint's life.

Iron Man and Thor couldn't claim credit for any of those things. 

"You're full of shit," she told him. 

It earned her a disapproving look from Mark and a sigh from Susan. 

But it earned her a laugh from Clint. 

"Though I suppose that's something you and Kate have in common," Susan said, and for a moment, Kate's heart hurt. "With her recent fondness for 'rodeo'." 

It had sounded like a good alibi to explain her injuries at the time. She did like horses. She often felt like she had been thrown from one after a battle.

Maybe she needed a better alibi. She'd work on that one. 

To Clint's credit, he just rolled with that, no matter how much disdain Susan had in her voice for it. "Yeah, who would have thought you could could get rodeo lessons in New York? Or y'know, anywhere east of Oklahoma?" 

"Well, I assume it's not actually _in the city,_ " Mark pointed out. 

"No, because who would take barrel racing lessons in the city? That'd be crazy," Kate scoffed. 

"I think it's the barrel racing that's crazy," Susan blurted.

"Hey, remember how you once promised that you'd support me in whatever I wanted to do in life? That fateful day you married Mark? Good to know you're going back on that one," Kate replied. 

There was a pause in which Kate and her sister took turns glaring at each other. 

'Wow," Clint said, "And here I thought Barney and I only fought like that because we grew up in a circus."

"Nah, it's the standard part of having siblings, pretty sure," Kate said dismissively. She resisted the urge to kiss him on the cheek, because she knew that Barney was a sore point. "Though the whole becoming a supervillain, not as much."

"I'm sorry, but did you just - your brother's a supervillain?" Mark looked as horrified as he sounded.

Her family: not great at poker faces. Bobbi would clear out their bank accounts in five minutes. 

"Yeah," Clint said, because there wasn't really a whole lot else to say to that kind of question. "Pretty unnecessarily dangerous for Katie, huh?" 

"Yes," Susan said quietly, "It is." 

"I tried to warn her, but you know, she's pretty stubborn," Clint explained, and oh, the worst part of this conversation was that Kate could see that he was _actually_ trying. Trying in that cute little blue suit that he'd hated, but had worn because she'd picked it out and because he wanted to make a good impression.

"Hush you," Kate said. "You love my stubbornness." 

It was the first time they ever used the big L word, and Clint's face looked a lot like what babies must look like when they smiled and nobody knew if it was gas or if they were genuinely happy.

Kate assumed it wasn't gas this time around. 

~*~

"Rodeo, really?" Clint said, two hours after one of the more awkward dinners of Kate's life was over. He said so as they roamed the aisles in the pet store two blocks from his apartment.

"I like horses," Kate said with a shrug. "It sounded like a good idea at the time." 

Clint gave her a doubtful look, so she continued. "I had a couple of unexplained bruises. I was tired of getting concerned questions from Susan. It was that or polo. But really, who would believe polo?" 

"So there's no sexy rodeo instructor two hours upstate?" 

"There is," Kate answered. "His name's Bryan, he hates New York, but his job moved him here two years ago. He's originally from New Mexico. I pay him weekly, and have been for two years. I've attended two lessons." 

Clint laughed at her, and they turned down the water and food bowl aisle. Lucky had discovered just how much fun it was to chew his plastic bowls up and now they had to buy him a new set. Clint kept forgetting to do so, and the sight of Lucky's hideous bowls were offending Kate's existence with their presence, so they were getting them tonight, dammit. 

There was one other person in the aisle, and Kate took the time to appreciate his attractiveness as her boyfriend squatted down to look at the bowls. "Is there a reason that these bowls have their own throne? That seems a little ridiculous." 

"To make it more comfortable for him to eat? Imagine if you had to bend your head down to the table to eat?" Kate shrugged. "You'd want it to be as high up to your mouth as possible, right?" 

"It's a dog bowl," Clint complained. "Paying that much money for it is stupid. Besides, it will probably confuse him."

"My dog really likes his," the man that Kate had previously noted as attractive said. "Even if it's harder for him to pick the bowls up and hide them around the house now."

Kate turned to look at him again, to get a better view. He was an inch taller than Kate, thick black hair, olive skin and friendly brown eyes that matched his sweater perfectly. 

"What kind of dog do you have?" Clint asked, looking up at the man and then back down at the bowl suspiciously. "Because Lucky has very individual taste."

The man looked amused, which was a good response to have to some of Clint's more ridiculous statements. "Monty's a lab and husky mix." 

"A mutt. Good taste," Clint murmured. 

Kate was pleased to hear the distraction in his voice. She hoped he was distracted for the same reason that she was. Considering that he wasn't looking at the bowls at all, it was a safe bet. 

"It's a shame we know your dog's name before we know yours, though. I'm Kate, by the way. The guy bitching about dog bowls is Clint." 

The stranger extended his hand. He didn't try to crush her hand and he didn't act like her hand was made of glass. "I'm Aiden. It's nice to meet you." 

Kate glanced over at Clint. "So, dinner, yes or no?" 

"I'm game if you two are," Clint answered. "Both types of dinner, really, because your sister's idea of portions are horrifying." 

Kate turned back to Aiden. "So, my boyfriend and I are about to go have some warmed up pizza. And probably sex. Would you like to join us?" 

He did look rather startled for a minute, then his mouth settled into an easy grin. "Do you always proposition people at the pet store?" 

"Only cute ones who aren't wearing wedding rings," Clint retorted. 

"I am pretty cute, it's true," Aiden agreed. "But then, so are the two of you." 

"It's actually our first time propositioning someone in a pet store," Kate told him. "But I'm liking how it's going so far." 

"Well, Monty does have a babysitter for the night." Aiden shrugged. "Who am I to get interrupt an obvious winning streak? You going to pay for your dog's bowl first?" 

They did. 

Then they took Aiden back to their apartment. 

~*~

It was their first stranger, but Kate wasn't willing to say that it would be their last.

Neither was Clint.


End file.
